﻿Opinion Poll: (Over half of Pakistanis paid bribes to police)

ISLAMABAD: According to a Gilani Research Foundation Survey carried out by Gallup Pakistan in 2012, 56% Pakistanis paid bribes to the police during the past year; 29% did not.

A nationally representative sample of adult men and women from across the four provinces, who had contact with the police during the past year, was asked in 2012, “In your contact or contacts with police have you or anyone living in your household paid a bribe in any form in the past 12 months?”

In response to this question, 56% respondents said they had paid bribes to the police during their contact in the past 12 months, 29% said they had not paid bribes to the police, while 15% did not respond.

This question was also asked in previous years. In 2007, 53% respondents claimed to have paid bribes to police during the past 12 months, while 45% denied having to pay bribes during contact with police and 2% did not respond.

By 2008, the percentage of respondents who said they paid bribes to police had increased to 63% and only 24% said they did not pay bribes to police, while 13% did not respond. Between 2008 and 2011, those respondents who paid bribes to police during the past year decreased to 54% and those that said they did not pay bribes increased to 37%, while 9% respondents did not respond.